Very good rant binners, at no point did it deteriorate into whinge and certainly kept me interested until the end.

Edinburgh is great fun with the tourists, it’s all about anticipating their next move and then doing the opposite as they don’t even know themselves. The Royal Mile pisses me off during the festival, it’s just unwashed students in ‘funny’ outfits proclaiming how unique they are and how their 45 minutes of over-indulgent and unfunnny pap is somehow better than everyone else’s.

Would screaming like a girl be a good way of getting pedestrians out of the way quickly when they walk into your path?

Haven’t got a clue what it weighs, certainly more than stock as it’s got heavier tyres and wheels, and Pikes.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CROSS-C2-ALLOY-FULL-SHOX-TWIN-DISC-MOUNTAIN-BIKE-NEW_W0QQitemZ320338139587QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Bikes_GL?hash=item320338139587&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1683%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

Buy it new instead

Someone I know had a Multipla, and his wife sold it while he was away on holiday.

Spacious though, fits three bikes upright and three people without even trying to squash things in.

Those grips look like the old style Specialized Enduro ones.

I use ODI Rogues on one bike, and Onza Ules on the other.

And if you’re up as far as Laggan, go to Golspie too.

This one?

Now with XT SPDs (I have a secured compound at work to leave it). It’s not in the slightest bit practical for extended road use, but I try to offroad home as much as possible so it comes into its own.

Something that pissed me off on Sunday in the Pentlands is the signpost near Harlaw reservoir where dog owners have thoughtfully left their plastic bags of poo. What a brilliant idea, leaving faeces rotting in a bag for anyone to find.

Never really noticed excessive litter at trail centres, although there’s the occasional empty gel or bottle at Glentress.

Kool Tool from circa 1997 for me, it resides in my toolbox and sees regular use. Just retired my red DX SPDs from 1999 after continual use.

Alien II and a CX, although I’m beginning to think the Alien is overkill since Powerlinks were invented. I rarely use the spanners, perhaps a separate chain tool would be lighter?

Vans with waffle soles. Loads of grip and half the price of 5:10s

People who shout at you when you park in disabled spaces, despite having a blue badge and a disabled passenger.

People who park in disabled spaces but have neither of the above.

The person that pisses on the seat in my office toilets.

Scroungers that choose not to work and instead claim the ‘social’.

The high number of studies that blame obesity on things other than eating too much and not exercising enough.

Text speak.

Those who refer to text messages as ‘texes’.

Why don’t you team up with a homebrew light maker?

The one I remember was a star fangled nut in the seatpost, connected to a cable with a bung at the end. This was lowered, and then you replaced one of the bottle cage bolts with a longer one that the bung sat under.

Leather waffle Vans for me. White, but only because they were the only leather ones in the sale in Schuh at the time.

Several of them laid on the ground in a row will provide a Krypton Factor/army assault course theme to your back garden

(much like half of fintrys population i think!).

Car share with a neighbour. Problem solved. Sort of.

I think they should build a roof over Glentress to allow year-round riding in t-shirts and shorts.

And perhaps have an escalator to the top, and then a gently meandering path down to the finish with adequate padding on each tree to avoid injury, and removal of all pointy rocks and potential dangers.

MTFU.

Bought her some flowers and perfume, she got me a really nice bottle of whisky.

Out for lunch and shopping for some jewellery, then spent the last 6 hours making wedding invitations.

I’m going riding tomorrow, I think I deserve it…

I tend to run to the Ministry of Sound annuals, purely because they’re nice uplifting house with a decent bpm throughout.

For all the tools you’ll rarely use, like headset press and SFN tool, find out what your mates have got already. Then buy something they’ve not got, so you can borrow theirs and have something to give back in future.

It’ll definitely be cheaper than an LBS visit.

Something to note – if you’re working with primary school kids you’ll probably have to pass a disclosure check.

Luckily I have.

I can do the occasional weekday (Edinburgh)

Nowt

Glenfiddich 18 Ancient Reserve

My cats destroying each other

Always the pink if playing for points (six versus four)

Still searching for lizards apparently

Get some old school Onza Ules, as they have the cut-off section for Gripshift.

Not lock-on though

I got my current monitor from Freecycle, but have given away a fair bit too. I ignore the email side of things, preferring to visit the website every so often.

al

I’ve got a Rab Drillium, an Altura Nevis, an Endura Crosstrack and a Rab Baltoro Lite soft shell.

The Altura is pish, the zip has fallen apart and it managed 7 minutes of rain before letting in water the first time I used it (it came from an MBR subscription).

The Drillium is excellent, it’s eVent and the fabric hasn’t failed on me yet. You will get wet through water pouring down your neck if it’s not completely zipped up and up the sleeves, but it’s been great for me.

The Endura is a bit heavy for normal riding but it remained mostly waterproof in some of the heaviest rain I’d experienced in the Highlands.

The softshell has never got fully soaked yet, I use it as my winter riding jacket and it’s perfect for that.

I do have to agree in part. I personally think that anyone that wears a bike helmet in a distinctly non-bike-related activity looks a bit nobbish. Like those folk you see in the supermarket.

I stayed a couple of nights in the campsite in Hayfield last June, it was really nice. It’s within walking distance of the pub too.

I was feeling all smug about riding my maintenance-free SS in the snow a few days ago. Until my tensioner froze.

Great fun though, and I find I can maintain grip by keeping a slow cadence and powering up hills with my weight slightly farther back than normal. I also find it far easier to accelerate in snow on this bike, it just takes a single pedal stroke to get you going as opposed to spinning a few times on my geared FS with the risk of slipping.

10 Clarks brake inners and 10 gear inners for a fiver from the MBR website. They’re so cheap I can replace them regularly as opposed to buying expensive cables.

661 Storms are good, but I find that they go absolutely freezing at the fingertips for the first 10 minutes or so.

13 offroad miles (GT last weekend)
75 SS miles commuting by the time I get home tonight.

Zero falls, one smug moment as I climbed gently past cars and buses slipping on the icy roads and then parking and giving up.

And it’ll be split 50-50 between you and them

Not entirely true. When making a cross-border SWIFT payment, the sender can specify if the charges are set to be paid by them, 50/50, or you entirely.

Are you receiving funds in GBP or EUR? Have you provided your IBAN and BIC/SWIFT? Sometimes banks are funny about giving them out, but if you know your sort code and account number you can work it out yourself.

Bought my Enduro 2nd hand but it was a stock spec. I’ve since spent a fair bit building it up to my spec (drivetrain, forks, bar/stem etc).

Any useable parts coming off it have been inherited by my second bike.

On other websites I frequent, it’s just courteous when you acknowledge someone’s attempt to organise a ride even if you’re passing on it, and it also provides further discussion in case the decision is taken to reorganise the same ride but for a different date.

If it’s for a random meet of strangers, I wouldn’t bother.

Pikes. I own coil 454s and Talas RLs, and the Pikes win every time. Far plusher and genuine fit-and-forget reliability

Ordnance Survey get a map and use the contour lines?